Excerpt from Renoir's Dancer by Catherine Hewitt, plus links to reviews, author biography & more

In a society where the best guarantee of autonomy was work, a son was considered the ultimate boon. Baby girls were frequently referred to pejoratively as no charamello (the whiner) or no pissouso (the pisser). The baptism of a girl would be announced with a single bell; for a boy, the joyous peals would go on and on.

Madeleine could not ignore what a blessing the child was. In impoverished rural areas like the Limousin, the loss of a child was all too common, so common in fact that at the time Madeleine gave birth to her infant, throughout France, parents still did not wear mourning following the death of a child. Generalised poverty in the Limousin led to its mothers acquiring a reputation for breast-feeding their babies well beyond the time deemed appropriate by women in other regions – up to twenty months in some cases. With children being raised on a diet that became less nutritionally sufficient as they grew, those very early years were fraught with risk. Still, there was no shortage of country wisdom available to an anxious new mother like Madeleine when it came to safeguarding her precious newborn baby. She should not show the child a mirror; that was to summon the devil. On no account should he be allowed to kiss a girl of similar age, for his speech would surely be retarded. And mothers should never cut their babies' fingernails in the first year unless they wanted the child to become a thief. Only once the child began toddling could a parent start to have a little more confidence in his or her physical stamina.

To Madeleine's relief, two years passed without significant problems. The Coulaud family grew more and more used to each other's company. But a week before Madeleine's 22nd birthday, her little boy, aged just two and a half, died unexpectedly.

People who knew the family were horrified. For all that infant mortality was common, losing an only son seemed a particularly cruel blow. A glimmer of hope came to lighten an otherwise dark period in the New Year, when Madeleine became pregnant again. The baby was delivered safely in October 1853, but the joy of the second child's arrival could not match that of the first: it was a baby girl. That meant not the promise of a second male income, but another mouth to feed, then a dowry to find, and it was far more difficult to marry off a daughter than a son. By this time Madeleine was no longer working; the growing family were having to survive on a single income.

Madeleine had another grievance, too. All was well so long as things worked in Coulaud's favour, but Madeleine soon learned that when displeased or intoxicated (or both), her husband was inclined to fly into a fearful rage. On one occasion, a violent outburst had resulted in his arrest, and Madeleine was forced to cope alone for two months as Coulaud served a short prison sentence. His vola­ tility boded ill. After such an auspicious beginning, the family's future now looked decidedly bleak.

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> While the Coulaud family struggled to adapt to their altered circumstances, broader changes were taking place on a national scale. On 2 December 1852, Louis Napoleon made himself emperor, promising to repair the damage left in the wake of the Second Republic by restoring the authoritarian order of the Bonapartist regime. By the 1850s, agriculture had become stagnant in the Limousin and the region's industry was concentrated in Limoges. Disillusioned by the Second Republic, eager for change, the people of the Limousin showed overwhelming support for the new emperor. Three days after the coup, the Empire was officially declared in Bessines. The announcement was greeted by enthusiastic calls of 'Vive l'empereur!', thunderous applause and sincere hopes for a brighter future. Napoleon's mission to boost internal prosperity found keen support in the region. Few recognised his campaign as an ingenious ploy designed to deflect attention from the staggering loss of liberty. The people of Bessines found it impossible not to be swept up in the heady allure of the new Empire. Indefatigable Republicans made themselves scarce. On 13 February 1853, the municipal council voted on a congratulatory message for his Highness following his recent marriage, and it was agreed that the town should find 45 francs to fund a bust of the emperor. As the new Empire started to thrive, religious sentiment withered in the Limousin, and a distinctly materialistic mindset took its place.

Renoir's DancerRenoir's Dancer by Catherine Hewitt. Copyright © 2018 by the author and reprinted by permission of St Martin's Press.